ZealousGolfer.com

Taniguchi has qualified for five of the last six US Opens. This will be the first major event Masudo will ever play in.

Hawaii's 16 year old sensation, Tadd Fujikawa failed to qualify. He shot a 78 in the morning round, the worst score of the day. He shot a 75 in the afternoon.

The remaining qualifying rounds will be played next Monday. 12 of them will be played in the United States. The 13th qualifier will take place in Surrey, England.

Michelle Wie followed a disappointing Thursday 81 with another poor round of 80 to come in second to last at the Casio World Open. Wie struggled with her swing again as the only female in the Japan Golf Tour's event.

It is easy to look at the fact that she hasn't won in 33 LPGA Tour starts and has made only a single cut in 13 men's events, but we often forget she is only a senior in high school. It is pretty likely that if she focused on dominating AJGA and amateur women's events, she likely would be a psychologically better player without the pressure. It is also quite possible that with every missed cut and poor finish, her game begins to decline. Regardless, Wie still is very young, and no teenage female has made a cut on a men's tour, and few have won in women's events, so there is still quite a bit of promise.

Wie will likely return to men's events early in '07 when the TOUR comes to Hawaii.

Teenage golfer Michelle Wie struggled again in a men's pro golf event after shooting 81 at the Casio World Open. Wie, whose only made cut was in Asia, struggled with her drives as everything else began to fall apart. Wie finished Thursday in 101st, two strokes ahead of Tomomichi Oto. Wie was positive on the prospects of making the cut, "I've been practicing and working on my game a lot, I still have a positive mind-set for tomorrow."

The event's other star, Colin Montgomerie, withdrew from the event due to personal reasons.

Azuma Yano and Tetsuhara Haraguchi were tied at the top of the leaderboard with opening 66's.